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Julee Stewart is quiet and soft spoken until she is armed with a baton and dressed in a glittery leotard. In a video from the world championships in Helsingborg, Sweden, last year, she looks coyly over her shoulder at the audience before launching a baton into the air. It disappears from the camera’s frame while she does one— two— three aerials in as many seconds and catches the metal rod once again.

Stewart, 19, is one of three finalists for Sask Sport’s Youth Female Athlete of the Year, and her group, Regina’s Sundown Optimist Buffalo Gals, is nominated for Team of the Year.

It is not news for most people that Saskatchewan has been hit hard by the downturn in oil prices. The unemployment rate has gone up and the province is grappling with a budget deficit of over a billion dollars. In the southeast part of the province, where the oil industry is a major employer, people have been especially hit hard.

Even though he never played hockey growing up, 70-year-old Howard Boehmer has always loved the game of hockey. His passion for the game has lasted for 51 years when some friends got him hooked back in 1966.